Studying Irony Detection Beyond Ironic Criticism: Let's Include Ironic Praise

Abstract

Studies of irony detection have commonly used ironic criticisms (i.e., mock positive evaluation of negative circumstances) as stimulus materials. Another basic type of verbal irony, ironic praise (i.e., mock negative evaluation of positive circumstances) is largely absent from studies on individuals' aptitude to detect verbal irony. However, it can be argued that ironic praise needs to be considered in order to investigate the detection of irony in the variety of its facets. To explore whether the detection ironic praise has a benefit beyond ironic criticism, three studies were conducted. In Study 1, an instrument (Test of Verbal Irony Detection Aptitude; TOVIDA) was constructed and its factorial structure was tested using N = 311 subjects. The TOVIDA contains 26 scenario-based items and contains two scales for the detection of ironic criticism vs. ironic praise. To validate the measurement method, the two scales of the TOVIDA were experimentally evaluated with N = 154 subjects in Study 2. In Study 3, N = 183 subjects were tested to explore personality and ability correlates of the two TOVIDA scales. Results indicate that the co-variance between the ironic TOVIDA items was organized by two inter-correlated but distinct factors: one representing ironic praise detection aptitude and one representing ironic criticism detection aptitude. Experimental validation showed that the TOVIDA items truly contain irony and that item scores reflect irony detection. Trait bad mood and benevolent humor (as a facet of the sense of humor) were found as joint correlates for both ironic criticism and ironic praise detection scores. In contrast, intelligence, trait cheerfulness, and corrective humor were found as unique correlates of ironic praise detection scores, even when statistically controlling for the aptitude to detect ironic criticism. Our results indicate that the aptitude to detect ironic praise can be seen as distinct from the aptitude to detect ironic criticism. Generating unique variance in irony detection, ironic praise can be postulated as worthwhile to include in future studies—especially when studying the role of mental ability, personality, and humor in irony detection.

When is irony influenced by communicative constraints? ERP evidence supporting interactive models

“…The N400‐like effect observed in the present study might reflect similar semantic difficulties. Ironic comments inserted in positive contexts express compliments (i.e., ironic praise), and they are much less frequent, familiar and prototypical than ironic comments in negative contexts (i.e., ironic criticism; Averbeck, ; Bromberek‐Dyzman, ; Bruntsch & Ruch, ; De Groot et al., ; Gibbs, ). This difference between contexts might result in different expectations and/or integration costs (Bruntsch & Ruch, ).…”

“…Ironic comments inserted in positive contexts express compliments (i.e., ironic praise), and they are much less frequent, familiar and prototypical than ironic comments in negative contexts (i.e., ironic criticism; Averbeck, ; Bromberek‐Dyzman, ; Bruntsch & Ruch, ; De Groot et al., ; Gibbs, ). This difference between contexts might result in different expectations and/or integration costs (Bruntsch & Ruch, ). While a negative context echoes irony and can trigger predictions about possible ironic comments, positive contexts do not often provide anticipatory cues for irony and the detection of the final intended meaning could require greater cognitive demands (Bruntsch & Ruch, ; Kreuz & Glucksberg, ; Nakassis & Snedeker, ).…”

“…This difference between contexts might result in different expectations and/or integration costs (Bruntsch & Ruch, ). While a negative context echoes irony and can trigger predictions about possible ironic comments, positive contexts do not often provide anticipatory cues for irony and the detection of the final intended meaning could require greater cognitive demands (Bruntsch & Ruch, ; Kreuz & Glucksberg, ; Nakassis & Snedeker, ). In this last case where irony is not much expected, nonliteral comments might be initially treated as a logical contradiction, leading to an N400 effect reflecting semantic processing costs (similar to Cornejo et al., and Filik et al., ).…”

“…According to this view, context can have an early impact on sentence interpretation, thereby supporting or discouraging figurative readings. One typical situation in which context can have an early impact on sentence interpretation is when sentence context has a positive or negative valence: In fact, many studies have described qualitative distinctions between the type of irony produced in negative contexts (i.e., ironic criticism) and the one produced in positive contexts (i.e., ironic praise), with the first type being more prototypical, more frequently used, and easier to be learned, detected, produced, and understood as compared to the second type (Averbeck, ; Bromberek‐Dyzman, ; Bruntsch & Ruch, ; De Groot, Kaplan, Rosenblatt, Dews, & Winner, ; Gibbs, ).…”

A Short Etude on Irony in Storytelling

“…The use of irony gives a choice of either acknowledging 'what is meant but not voiced' or referring to 'what is said but not really meant. ' Brown and Levinson (1987) define irony in terms of 'understatement', not only violating Grice's Maxim of Quality (i.e. do not say what you believe to be false or not supported by evidence) but also the Maxim of Quantity (i.e.…”